charles munsey
Alleged Crime(s)
In May 1993, Shirley Weaver was bludgeoned to death with a shotgun stock in her boyfriend’s trailer. Weaver was hit so hard the shotgun stock shattered. The perpetrator took about $200 and a pistol. Arrest & Trial The key evidence in the prosecution's case was the testimony of Timothy Smith, a jailhouse informant who told police that he had overheard Munsey admitting to the murder. In 1996, a jury found Munsey guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced him to death. Post-Conviction & Exoneration In the years following his conviction, Munsey pursued appeals until Superior Court Judge Tom Ross ruled in his favor in 1998. Judge Ross noted that prosecutors had withheld evidence of Munsey's innocence including a credible confession made to the country sherriff and policy chief by Mike Hawksin, the true perpetrator. Mike Hawkins confessed that he borrowed Munsey’s car the day of the murder, killed Ms. Weaver, and gave the pistol he stole to Munsey. A month following the murder, Munsey traded the stolen pistol for illegal drugs. Munsey’s attorneys also discovered that the Wilkes County District Attorney withheld evidence that the central witness, a jailhouse informant, was never in the prison where Munsey supposedly confessed to him. The lead prosecutor in the Weaver murder case, District Attorney Randy Lyon, committed suicide in January 1998, just a few days after a judge ordered that case records be reopened. In May 1999, Wilkes County Superior Court Judge Todd Burke set a $250,000 bond for Munsey who won a new murder trial after Judge Ross ruled prosecutorial misconduct had occurred in Munsey’s original trial. Munsey died in prison before he received the new trial. |
Location: Wilkes County, North Carolina
Crime: Murder Victim(s): Shirley Weaver Date of Crime: May 1993 Date of Conviction: 1996 (inconsistent with spreadsheet- says conviction was in 1993, but both articles provided say 1996) Date of Exoneration: 1998 Sentence: Death Race: no info Gender: Male Age at Arrest: Uknown Contributing Factors: Perjury or False Accusation, Confession by Real Perpetrator DNA Exoneration: No |